The Jagged Cavalry of the Three Kingdoms

473 Chapter 472 The Mountain Rain Is Coming

With a loud "bang", the door of the cell was kicked open, and a man in hard attire walked in from the outside. His face was ferocious, and he didn't look like a kind person.

"Are you Gongsun Gong?" The visitor walked up to Gongsun Gong, glanced at Gongsun Gong who was curled up in the cage, and asked directly.

Gongsun Gong asked in surprise, "You...you know me?"

The visitor said: "It seems that you are really Gongsun Gong."

As soon as the voice fell, the visitor rushed to the door and shouted: "Come here, let him go."

Two more people came in from the door, these two people were very familiar to Gongsun Gong, they were the pirates who brought him to this ghost place.

Gongsun Gong looked at the three people who appeared in front of him in puzzlement, and asked: "You...what are you going to do, arrest me first, and now let me go, what do you mean?"

"It's nothing interesting, it's just that someone came to redeem you."

"Redempt... redeem it?"

The door of the cell was opened, and the two strong men who brought him in took him out again. As soon as he got out of the cell, he saw more than a dozen people waiting at the door of the cell, one of whom was wearing armor , wearing an iron helmet, looks like a general, and the people behind him are all dressed in uniform, all wearing uniform military uniforms, this army is clearly the Han army.

"Gongsun Gong, right?" The man in iron helmet and armor walked up to Gongsun Gong and asked.

Gongsun Gong nodded, and was about to ask how they knew him, but the man said first, "Prepare the horse for Mr. Gongsun!"

Soon, a soldier led a war horse to Gongsun Gong, and respectfully asked Gongsun Gong to get on the horse.

Gongsun Gong was confused, first he was robbed by pirates, and then this wave of unknown soldiers wanted to take him away, he felt like he was dreaming.

However, Gongsun Gong didn't get on his horse immediately, but asked the general-looking man, "I want to ask, where are you taking me?"

"Go see my master!" The general-looking man replied.

"Excuse me, who is your master?" Gongsun Gong asked.

"Mr. Gongsun will know when we get to the place. Mr. Gongsun should know how to ride a horse?" asked the general-looking man.

Gongsun Gong nodded, and said to the general-looking man: "These pirates have stolen everything from me. It is very important to me whether you can help me get those things back."

The man who looked like a general smiled and said: "Mr. Gongsun, don't worry, those things are already with the master. When we get to the place, my master will naturally return all the things to Mr. Gongsun."

Gongsun Gong let out an "oh", then rode a horse inexplicably, and left here with the group of people.

The crowd galloped all the way, and soon came to a city. When they approached, Gongsun Gong looked up, and it turned out to be the county seat of Qu County.

At this moment, Gongsun Gong began to think secretly: "Qu County is Zhang Yan's territory, he was brought here, could something happen?"

Gongsun Gong began to feel an inexplicable fear. If his purpose was really known by the magistrate of Qu County, then he would never leave Xuzhou alive. It would be strange if the regent Yan Wang Zhang Yan didn't eat him alive.

But now Gongsun Gong is surrounded by people, he can't escape, if he just wanted to escape, he was killed by this group of armed men, it would be too much for the loss.

With a disturbed mood, Gongsun Gong followed the group of people into the county seat of Qu County, and then went straight to the county government of Qu County.

When they arrived at the county government office, everyone got off their horses one after another. The man who looked like a general said to Gongsun Gong: "Mr. Gongsun, we have arrived, please!"

Gongsun Gong looked calm on the surface, but in his heart he was already surging, even with a wave of fear in his heart.

Soon, Gongsun Gong was brought into the hall of the county government office, where he was arranged to wait for the arrival of the master of the general.

After a while, a person came out from the back hall, wearing an official uniform, it was Mi Qiang, the county magistrate of Qu County.

Mi Qiang was originally the housekeeper of Mi Zhu's family. Later, Zhang Yan began to run the salt and iron government, abolished private salt, and strictly prohibited private iron smelting. With Qu County as the key pilot county, he was exceptionally promoted to the county magistrate, responsible for the jurisdiction of Qu Salt and iron in the county, and this led several surrounding counties to crack down on private salt and iron.

Since Mi Qiang is Mi Zhu's housekeeper, he has followed Mi Zhu for many years, and he knows how to do business very well. In addition, Mi's family is very famous in Xuzhou, and anyone will sell him three-point thin noodles, so Mi Qiang started Things are coming, it can be said to be handy.

As a result, Qu County has gradually become a key county for salt and iron production. In addition, it is close to the sea, you can go by sea or land, and the transportation is very convenient. From this point, it radiates to the surroundings, driving several surrounding counties Together, everyone made the business of Yantie official camp in full swing.

Until now, the money obtained through the salt and iron trade is still one-seventh of the entire national treasury.Although the tax revenue driven by salt and iron is not as much as the money obtained from trade, it has always been very stable.

Therefore, within the scope of Zhang Yan's rule, Xuzhou is the richest state, Donghai County in Xuzhou is the county with the most rich people, and Qu County accounts for a quarter of the rich people in Xuzhou. Most of them are salt merchants who support the official operation of Yantie and obtain the legal status of salt merchants by registering with the county government. They join the large organization of Yantie and pay a certain percentage of taxes to the government based on their trade income. , It can be seen that the huge profits brought by the official operation of salt and iron to these salt merchants.

Among them, Mi Qiang can be said to have contributed a lot.And because of this, Zhang Yan made an exception and was named a first-class baron, with three hundred households in Qu County, the city of food.

Mi Qiang came to the hall of the county government, took a look at Gongsun Gong who was sitting in the hall, then walked straight over, and said respectfully: "This must be Mr. Gongsun, right?"

Gongsun Gong was also a prefect in Liaodong, so he naturally knew that this official robe was a county magistrate, so he said to Mi Qiang, "Your Excellency, you are welcome. I can't bear the word sir. May I ask what your name is?"

Mi Qiang said: "My surname is Mi, and I am the magistrate of this county."

"It turned out to be the magistrate of Mi County. I'm sorry for my disrespect."

Mi Qiang said: "Mr. Gongsun is too polite. You must know that Mr. Gongsun is the younger brother of Marquis of Liaodong and the prefect of Lelang. Mi is just a small county magistrate. How can he be compared with Mr. Gongsun?"

"How can a prefect in a poor country be compared with a county magistrate in the Central Plains? By the way, county magistrate Mi, what's the point of inviting me here?" Gongsun Gong said.

Mi Qiang said: "That's how it is. Yesterday, a group of pirates said that they captured a man named Gongsun Gong and extorted a ransom from me. They said that Gongsun Gong is the elder brother of the current Empress Dowager, and asked me to use the money to ransom him. , I killed Mr. Gongsun. So I sent someone to contact the pirates with money, and then redeemed Mr. Gongsun."

Gongsun Gong sighed heavily, and said: "Oh! This group of pirates should have been eyeing me since Liaodong, because they hijacked me as soon as I got off the boat and knocked me out. .”

"By the way, why is Mr. Gongsun dressed as a businessman? As far as I know, that ship is going from Liaodong to Jiangdong. Could it be that Mr. Gongsun is going to Jiangdong..."

"No, no, no..." Gongsun Gong quickly denied, "It's not like that, I just happened to be on that boat, and I actually wanted to come to Xuzhou. That boat happened to be docking in Xuzhou, and I dressed like a businessman , It’s also for the sake of convenience, in fact, the main purpose of my coming to Xuzhou is to purchase refined salt, and then transport it to Liaodong for sale.”

Mi Qiang said: "Mr. Gongsun is already an honored prefect, and he is also the younger brother of Marquis of Liaodong. I just leave it to my subordinates to do small things like purchasing refined salt. Why did Mr. Gongsun come in person?"

"This is my first time doing business, so I want to strictly control it. I don't feel too relieved if I hand it over to others. Moreover, since I have come to Xuzhou, I still want to go to Pengcheng to visit the Queen Mother!" Gongsun Gong talked freely, talking wherever he thought.

"By the way, Magistrate Mi, the pirate said, they gave you all my things, can you return those things to me, some of them are still very important to me." Gongsun Gong said.

Mi Qiang nodded, asked someone to fetch the things, and handed them to Gongsun Gong face to face.

Gongsun Gong checked and found that these things belonged to him, but there seemed to be one thing missing, which was the imperial edict that Gongsun Kang handed over to him.

Gongsun Gong's face was hot, he looked at Mi Qiang from time to time, and thought: "The edict is very important, if you lose it, it's fine, but if it falls into Mi Qiang's hands, it will be terrible." ..."

"Mr. Gongsun, what's wrong with you, you look so ugly? Is there something missing?" Mi Qiang asked suddenly.

After hearing this, Gongsun Gong was startled, and hurriedly said, "It's missing one thing, a jade pendant that I carry with me. County Magistrate Mi, are these things given to you by pirates?"

"Except for the gold, silver jewelry and money you carry with you, everything else is here. Your jade pendant is probably too valuable. It was taken away by pirates, so I'm afraid it won't be returned. But it doesn't matter, Pengcheng There are many merchants selling jewelry and jade in the street market, and the quality is very good. Mr. Gongsun is going to Pengcheng to meet the Queen Mother, why not go to Pengcheng and let the Queen Mother reward Mr. Gongsun with a piece. Mr. Gongsun, I have also I just want to go to Pengcheng, why don't we go on the road together, so we can have someone to take care of us along the way." Mi Qiang said.

Gongsun Gong was going to Pengcheng, he just said it casually, but Mi Qiang didn't expect that he really took it seriously, and he was going there in two days.He was afraid of Mi Qiang's suspicion, so he agreed and planned to go to Pengcheng with Mi Qiang to meet his sister whom he hadn't seen for many years.

However, since Mi Qiang said he didn't see the lost edict, he believed it. Anyway, it's better to lose it than to fall into Mi Qiang's hands, otherwise, he would be in danger.

That night, Mi Qiang warmly entertained Gongsun Gong. Early the next morning, Mi Qiang and Gongsun Gong formally headed for Pengcheng with more than a dozen entourages. On the way, Gongsun Gong was particularly awkward. Originally, the mission given to him by Gongsun Kang was to go to Jiangdong and Jingzhou, but I thought that he went to Pengcheng by accident.Moreover, he lost the most important imperial edict. Even if he left Pengcheng, it would be difficult for him to go to Jiangdong and Jingzhou again.

Thinking of this, Gongsun Gong is frowning...

(End of this chapter)